Death at Hogwarts
by Nicole di Angelo
Summary: Nico goes goes to Hogwarts to kill Voldemort. Might be some Nico/Luna. Rated T cause I don't know what will come next. The story is much better than the summary and cause I suck at making summaries. Takes place after the Goblet of Fire & before TLH.
1. Tracking Ghosts

**Hi this is my first fanfic so please review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or Harry Potter **

**Nico's Point of View**

"Just one more ghost to track down…for today," I murmured to myself as I walked toward the place where could I sense the ghost's aura – Rite Aid. It's wintertime after the Titan War, and I'm still in the underworld tracking down ghosts for my father. I had already gotten four others to the Underworld today, and Alex would be the last one I have to guide. Not all souls want to go and wait for thousands of years at Charon's office. I can't blame them. It's the most boring thing ever (doing nothing, shivers, horrible!). As I got closer, I could actually see him trying to get his parents' attention. They continued shopping, totally unaware of their deceased son jumping up and down in front of them. Gently, I went up to Alex, who was now sitting on the floor in defeat, and said, "They can't see you." (Now that I think about it, way to state the obvious).

**Alex's Point of View**

I did everything I can think of to get their attention. I jumped, waved, and shouted in front of them, but my parents didn't even seem to notice at all. Then, as I slumped onto the floor in defeat, a boy wearing black aviator's jacket and jeans with a skull ring on his finger went up to me and said that my parents can't see me. So far, nobody else besides the creepy guy whose name tag said "Charon" had been able to see me. I was very surprised.

**Nico's Point of View**

His eyes widened, "so how come you can?" he asked.

"It's my job, sort of," I replied, "don't worry, you'll probably go to Elysium, so there's nothing to fear, come with me."

He looked at me suspiciously before mumbling an "okay" hesitantly and casting one last regretful glance at his parents before he took my hand and we shadow traveled to the Underworld.

After I dropped him off at Elysium, I went to my father's palace. Mission for today accomplished.

"Very good," Hades said with satisfaction, "but tomorrow you will have a much harder assignment that should take at least two months to do."

"What would be, my lord?," I asked.

His expression immediately turned into one of extreme distaste, "This…_mortal_, Tom Riddle, has insulted me by splitting his soul into horcruxes just to escape death! Seven of them! "

I knew he must have murdered at least 7 people to do that, though I guess he killed more. "How did this Tom person know about horcruxes?" I asked incredulously.

Hades shrugged, "He is what the wizarding world calls the Dark Lord."

Somehow that didn't surprise me one bit. There's a Roman camp. Why can't there be a wizarding world?

Hades spent the rest of the day telling me about its history. Even though I zoned out on most of it, I still got the main idea.

"You'll go as an American exchange student, and the supplies are already prepared," he waved at the heap of stuff lying beside the throne, "and Lady Hecate should be here soon…"

Right on cue, a strikingly beautiful woman with magical blue eyes and black hair walked into the throne room. "Tom, or as he calls himself, Voldemort, is a dark wizard, part of a group of people blessed by me. For the trip temporarily, I shall bless you with magic and give you a wand." Taking out a dark black wand, she gave it to me. It looked awesome. A delicate carving of a skull can be seen at the bottom of the wand. "The mission of the trip," she continued, "is to kill all seven horcruxes, but I believe two may already have been taken care of for you." Hecate winked at me.

"Now that you know what to do," Hades said, "go get some sleep and board the train at platform 9 3/4 tomorrow."

"Yes, father," I said as I bowed to him and shadow traveled to my room. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day.

**Please review and tell me if you liked it or not. All criticism welcome (as long as they're not plain mean).**


	2. Express Train part I

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Harry Potter.**

"**This is talking"**

'**This is thinking'**

**Nico's Point of View**

I woke up early the next morning, trying to find the Hogwarts Express (because shadow traveling to the school would just be too obvious, Hades had said). Before I went to the train station, I shadow traveled to the fire escape in Percy's apartment (again), and surprised him just as he was about to leave for school.

"Nico!" Percy exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

I smirked at his expression, "what, I can't just visit my cousin before I go on a quest for a few months?"

"Where are you going?" Percy asked curiously.

I couldn't help it; I grinned and said, "Classified information."

"Fine, say hi to Uncle Hades when you get back for me," Percy said, though he looked a bit angry at the fact that I wouldn't tell him where I'm going.

"Sure," I shrugged, and then shadow traveled all the way to England. Since there was no way I was going to go on a quest in unknown territory without my favorite Stygian Iron sword (yes, I actually do have more than one, though some are daggers), my father had managed to enchant it so that the sword will appear if I twist the skull ring, which was pretty convenient. I also took various assorted daggers and throwing knives with me. Call me paranoid, but demigods who don't want to be monster food all are. I'm getting off topic here. Blame ADHD for that. Anyways, I emerged from the shadow in a remote corner of King's Cross Railway Station ready to sleep for a day (pretty good, considering I just went from L.A. to N.Y. and then to London. ). 'Why is it platform 9 ¾?' I mused, 'why not platform 9 ½ or something?' Soon I stood between platforms 9 and 10. I didn't see platform 9 ¾ anywhere, but then it's an express train to a secret wizarding school, so I guess it has to be discreet. Just then, a group of redheads came to a stop in front of a wall and, after some talking, went…_through_ the wall. My eyes widened; that must be the entrance to the train! I took my suitcases, followed the redheads through the wall, and emerged onto platform 9 ¾ with a train labeled "Hogwarts Express". I got onto the train only to find all the compartments full. Great. Just great.

**Harry's Point of View**

I was having a really bad year. Of all the years at Hogwarts, this was the worst. Voldemort was back. I was being called "The Boy Who Lied" by the Daily Prophet. Nobody but my friends and Dumbledore believe me. 'This is not going to be a good year at Hogwarts', I thought gloomily. Trying to take my mind off the thoughts, I looked around and saw a boy who with dark hair and black eyes that looked older, as though they had seen a lot of stuff wearing black muggle clothing and a silver skull ring staring at the compartments, looking for an empty one. I was lucky that Hermione saved the last empty compartment for Ron and me. The boy looks about our age, except I've never seen him before. Obviously he's new.

"I think we should invite the boy over there to join us," I said to Hermione, who was reading a book, and Ron, who looked bored, "he looks lost."

"Hmm…I haven't seen him before," Hermione said, looking curiously at the boy, "he is too old to be a first year…we can invite him over and ask him about it."

"So who's going to talk to him?" Ron asked. None of us looked enthusiastic. I have to admit, that kid looks creepy.

"I guess we'll all go," I said reluctantly, which is why we ended up talking to Nico.

**Nico's Point of View**

I was still trying to find an empty compartment when I saw three people, two boys and a girl, slowly approaching me. One of the boys was from the group of redheads I saw earlier, and the other one had a scar that looked like lightning, dark hair, and glasses. The girl had brown hair with a knowing expression that reminded me of Annabeth. They were all dressed in the school uniform – robes. Percy and Thalia would never stop laughing if they ever catch me wearing that. As they walked closer, I waited for them to introduce themselves.

The girl shifted uncomfortably and said, "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ron Weasley." She held out her hand in the universal gesture of a handshake.

"I'm Nico di Angelo," I said, shaking it.

The boy with the glasses had stayed quiet all along.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?' I asked.

Gasps can be heard from the trio.

"You don't recognize him?" Ron asked incredulously, "The Chosen One? The Boy Who Lived?"

"The Chosen One" made sense, but "The Boy Who Lived"? I raised my eyebrows, "So?" I asked, "I'm living too."

"He-he's Harry Potter!" Ron said, "He is the only wizard to survive the killing curse!"

Styx. That must be a part when I zoned out on Hades and Hecate's lesson on wizarding history. I couldn't help it! I'm ADHD, for gods' sake!

"It's okay," Harry said. 'At least one person didn't think I lied, what a relief,' he thought. "All the other compartments are full, so do you want to join us?" He asked.

"Thanks," I said as I followed them to their compartment. 'Now I have to be even more careful. They would be suspicious now', I thought.

**Okay, so it was a bad ending. I'll put up the rest of it next chapter.**

**I just put Percy in because I'm not sure if he will come up in later chapters.**

**Special thanks to Hugs6 for making the title interesting, and thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**A/N: Should Percy appear in later chapters with Nico?**


	3. Express Train part II

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or Harry Potter**

**Harry's P.O.V.**

As soon as we got back to the compartment, Hermione launched a volley of questions at Nico. I feel sorry for the kid.

"So," she was saying, "where are you from?"

"America," Nico replied, and I couldn't help but notice that he doesn't like to talk much.

Hermione frowned, "I didn't know Hogwarts takes transfer students."

Nico hesitated before saying, "My father wants me to transfer to this school because he thinks I'll get a better education here."

Now I was suspicious; why did he hesitate? Is there another wizarding school in America? That was unheard of.

Apparently Hermione was having the same thoughts, because she asked, "There's a school of magic in America?"

"Of course, but more like a camp," Nico said.

Now all three of us were thoroughly confused. A magical camp in America? My day just got worse. I hated not knowing, especially with Voldemort back.

"How come Dumbledore never talks about it?" I asked him, confused, "No American school showed up for the triwizard tournament."

He shrugged, "Maybe you guys are not the only ones good at hiding secret schools/camps," his tone indicating the end of that subject. There has to be something he's hiding. Nico apparently didn't want to answer any more questions, because just then he curled up on the bed and fell asleep, or pretended to be sleeping, anyways. I gestured for Hermione and Ron to come closer to talk about Nico.

"Well, what do you think of him?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," I said truthfully, "he could be a Death Eater, I mean, it's like he has a dark aurora or something." I cast a suspicious glance at the sleeping boy.

"We'll have to keep an eye on him," Hermione decided, "he could be working for You-Know-Who, attending Hogwarts just after You-Know-Who comes back." We all decided to spy on Nico, at least until we find out more about him. Looks like we have some serious work to do under the invisibility cloak this year.

**Nico's Point of View**

The trio looked pretty curious about me, Harry and Hermione especially. I told them part of the truth, except you have to replace "wizarding camp" with "demigod camp" for it to be true. At least they didn't ask who my father was. I'll have to think of some explanation for that later. 'This is ridiculous', I thought, 'how am I supposed to convince them?' Now they're huddled together, apparently talking about something. Me. I tuned in on their conversation (a good thing about being a demigod: great hearing to sense monsters…or people talking about you).

"…could be a Death Eater…" Harry was saying. I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from laughing. Death Eater? As in Thanatos eater? I'd like to see the "Death Eaters" try. I doubt he would be very tasty, if at all. Besides, who would want to eat Death? These wizards have some pretty weird names. The rest of their conversation was as confusing as the thing about Death Eaters. Hermione mentioned You-Know-Who, which I'm 100% sure is not his real name, wait, he could be that Tom Riddle/Voldemort person! The description by Hades and Hecate fits him. Feared by wizards. Check. Has a group of followers who terrorize people for him. Check (Death Eaters, who else would have such a ridiculous name for his followers?). Just came back. Check (it has to be the horcruxes, making him almost immortal). So apparently they think I'm associated with Riddle. Great. The mission just got harder, assuming that they'll be trying to follow me to see where I'm going.

I was still thinking about what Harry had said when I felt an odd sensation that told me death is near. I told the trio that I'm going sightseeing and went to investigate, following the radar that's pointing me to the direction of it. Suddenly, I saw it. The shadow minion was walking along the through the corridors of the train, causing it to stop. Everywhere it went; it seemed to suck the happiness out of things. My father uses them to guard the Fields of Punishment instead of just regular skeletons. What was this one doing here? He should be down in the Underworld, guarding the Fields. I stepped into the shadow, making them wrap around me so I would be invisible to any wizard observer.

"Τι κάνεις εδώ; (What are you doing here?)" I hissed in Greek as it recoiled in surprise at finding a son of Hades here.

"Έχω παραγγείλει από το σκοτεινό άρχοντα να βρει Χάρι Πότερ, κύριέ μου. (I have been ordered by the Dark Lord to find Harry Potter, my Lord)," it said.

"Μην εργάζεστε για τον ίδιο, (Don't work for him.)" I said, "Πάρτε πίσω τα πεδία τώρα (Get back to the Fields right now)."

"αλλά- (but-)"

"Ρωτήσατε για το σκοπό αυτό, (You asked for this)," I sighed, then made a crack appear on the ground and, just like what I did to the skeletons that chased Percy and Bianca 3-4 **[A/N: I'm not sure how long ago that was] **years earlier, watched as the shadow minion got sucked straight through the train of the floor and into the crack, which then closed up. Exhausted, I walked slowly back to Harry's compartment and this time, slept for real.

**Harry's Point of View**

Something was up. The train suddenly stopped, just moments after Nico went sightseeing on the train. I silently went to the corridor to see a Dementor. Surprisingly, it stopped and hissed in an odd language that I've never heard before. I was close enough to hear another voice, Nico's, except a) he was speaking the same odd language, and b) there was nobody in sight. Now my suspicions about him being a Death Eater was confirmed. He was definitely working for Voldemort. Then a really strange thing happened. The Dementor suddenly let out a scream as it was sucked through the floor of the train and into the ground before I got the chance to cast the Patronus spell at it. I ran all the way back to my compartment moments before Nico staggered in and fell asleep on the bed. I told Hermione and Ron what I had just seen, and even Hermione was as confused as me.

"Interesting…" she murmured, "he talked to it in a odd language, then…dispelled it? Into the ground?" When I nodded in confirmation, she continued, "That doesn't sound like what a Death Eater would do."

"So what did that sound like?" Ron asked, exasperated.

"I really don't know," Hermione said, "I'll have to look up more about him in the library." I knew she hated admitting that; Hermione liked to know everything.

"Don't worry," I said confidently, "we'll find out more about him when we get to Hogwarts."

**Nico's Point of View**

After I woke up from the nap feeling refreshed, I looked through the school supplies to kill time. I found a quill and ink bottles. What time period was this? Seriously? Why do wizards like old fashioned stuff? I also found some scrolls and books for the classes I'll be taking. Thankfully Hecate had enchanted them so that they'll be Ancient Greek instead of English, which is a little better, but still bad for an ADHD demigod. After going through all the supplies, I felt the train slowing down. We've arrived at Hogwarts (I had laughed uncontrollably when I heard that name, it just sounds so ridiculous). Still, I want to see what this secret wizarding school looks like.

**Okay, finally finished! That was a long train ride. Next Chapter will be the Sorting Hat and the entire welcoming feast.**

**A/N: Percy will definitely be appearing in later chapters, and please review!**


	4. Author's Note IMPORTANT

**A/N: Sorry, the story was supposed to take place after The Goblet of Fire and before the Son of Neptune, and I realized that the things happening on the train in chapters 2 and 3 are totally out of character. The rest of it wouldn't be, I promise! So all events in this story after chapter 3 would happen during The Order of the Phoenix. I'll update as soon as I can. Thanks to everybody who reviewed. **


	5. Sorting and the Feast

**Okay, so this is a long chapter cause the other ones are all so short. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or Harry Potter.**

**Nico's Point of View**

I got off the train, Ron and Hermione escorting the first years. Hecate told me there would be two prefects in each house, but I didn't realize Ron and Hermione would be the ones for Gryffindor. I didn't even notice the owl and the cat until Harry picked them up, ready to get off the train. As I took the various belongings off the train, a woman came and called, "Nico di Angelo? Where are you?"

"Here," I said,

"You're the American exchange student, right?" she looked at me.

"Yeah," I said. By now people were looking at me. I hate being the center of attention.

"You're coming with me." Satisfied that I was following her, she called to the first years, who were all looking wide eyed at their surroundings. "First years line up over here, please! All first years to me!" I didn't like going with the 11-year-olds, and I'm sure lots of people are looking at me, but blowing my cover doesn't seem like a good idea either. Still, it's really embarrassing. The woman, who was holding a lantern, led us through a path surrounded on both sides by forests. Suddenly the path widened onto the edge of a lake and I caught sight of Hogwarts for the first time. Hogwarts is a giant castle! It stood on the other side of the lake, on the top of a mountain. My thoughts were interrupted when the woman said, "No more than four on a boat." 'There's no way I'm going on a boat! Into Poseidon's domain!' I thought feverishly. Just thinking about it made me sick. No son of Hades or Zeus would ever go on a boat, even if you're on a mission! Not if you don't want to go to Hades the hard way (shadow traveling there would be the easiest way, or you could bribe Charon). The weather was stormy gray, so I'm not the only one in a bad mood, which didn't help me one bit. Note to self: a great way to get blasted to bits: walk into Zeus or Poseidon's domain AS A SON OF HADES.

"Um…Professor?" I asked, "Is there another way besides crossing the lake?"

She looked at me weirdly, "Of course there is," she said, but you have to be at least a second year. The Professor pointed upwards, where I saw carriages pulled by winged thestrals. They look awesome to me. Thestrals are the only type of horses that likes me. Pegasus complain anytime I'm near them (just because I can't understand what they're saying doesn't mean I can't feel their emotions). Horses kick me when I try to get on (that was a mistake I'll never repeat again). I was pulled out of my daydreaming when she continued, "you have to come with me and get sorted."

I gulped. This is going to be suspicious…but it's not like I have any choice… "I'll…see you at the other end! I can't go onto the boats!"

"What are you talking about?" she asked angrily, annoyed with me for making the whole first years late, "there is no other way for first years!" The last of the carriages were now taking off.

"Maybe there is," I said, then ran into the forest, leaving her shouts behind. Satisfied they couldn't see me, I closed my eyes, thought of the other side of the lake, and was engulfed instantly by shadows. I emerged from a patch of shadows on the other side of the lake Nobody saw me. Good. The first years got off the boats and I walked up to join them, acting as though nothing happened. Professor name-I-do-not-know looked a bit creeped out, but thankfully she didn't ask any questions. She knocked on the entrance door to Hogwarts, and a witch with black hair let the doors open.

"The first years, Professor McGonagall," the person that brought us here said, "and the exchange student."

"Thank you, Professor Grubbly-Plank," Professor McGonagall said, taking the first years inside.

**[A/N: the speech is all from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Feel free to skip it]. **"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room.

"The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."** [End of Speech].**

Wow. Long Speech. Thanks to ADHD, I didn't hear most of it. Something about Houses…are important? And the Sorting? Right, Hecate told me I'd be in Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. Then Professor McGonagall led us into the Great Hall. I could feel everybody's eyes on me. I didn't belong with the first years. She placed a ragged-looking hat on the stool, and everybody waited, looking at the hat. Did they expect it to do something? Jump up and down? Or do a dance? Suddenly, the hat split open to form a mouth, and to my surprise and utter amazement, began to sing:

_In times of old when I was new_

_And Hogwarts barely started_

_The founders of our noble school_

_Thought never to be parted:_

_United by a common goal,_

_They had the selfsame yearning,_

_To make the world's best magical school_

_And pass along their learning._

"_Together we will build and teach!"_

_The four good friends decided_

_And never did they dream that they_

_Might someday be divided,_

_For were there such friends anywhere_

_As Slytherin and Gryffindor?_

_Unless it was the second pair_

_Of Huffleuff and Ravenclaw?_

_So how could it have gone so wrong?_

_How could such friendship fail?_

_Why, I was there and so can tell_

_The whole sad, sorry tale._

_Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those_

_Whose ancestry is purest."_

_Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose_

_Intelligence is surest."_

_Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those_

_With brave deeds to their name."_

_Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,_

_And treat them just the same."_

_These differences caused little strife_

_When they first came to light,_

_For each of the four founders had_

_A house in which they might_

_Take only those they wanted, so,_

_For instance, Slytherin_

_Took only pure-blood wizards_

_Of great cunning, just like him,_

_And only those of the sharpest mind_

_Were taught by Ravenclaw_

_While the bravest and the boldest_

_Went to daring Gryffindor._

_Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,_

_And taught them all she knew,_

_Thus the Houses and their founders_

_Retained friendships firm and true._

_So Hogwarts worked in Harmony_

_For several happy years,_

_But then discord crept among us_

_Feeding on our faults and fears._

_The Houses that, like pillars four,_

_Had once held up our school,_

_Now turned upon each other and,_

_Divided, sought to rule._

_And for a while it seemed the school,_

_Must meet an early end,_

_What with dueling and with fighting_

_And the clash of friend on friend_

_And at last there came a morning_

_When old Slytherin departed_

_And though the fighting then died out_

_He left us quite downhearted._

_And never since the founders four_

_Were whittled down to three_

_Have the Houses been united_

_As they once were meant to be._

_And now the Sorting Hat is here_

_And you all know the score:_

_I sort you into Houses_

_Because that's what I'm for,_

_But this year I'll go further,_

_Listen closely to my song:_

_Though condemned I am to split you_

_Still I worry that it's wrong,_

_Though I must fulfill my duty_

_And must quarter every year_

_Still I wonder whether sorting_

_May not bring the end I fear._

_Oh, know the perils, read the signs,_

_The warning history shows,_

_For our Hogwarts is in danger_

_From external, deadly foes_

_And we must unite inside her_

_Or we'll crumple from within._

_I have told you, I have warned you…_

_Let the Sorting now begin._

The Hat stopped and everybody applauded, jerking me out of my sleepiness. That was a really long song, and I couldn't help it: I almost fell asleep. I would've fallen asleep if it was a bit longer. Now that I was fully awake, I could hear the whispers and murmurs that filled the whole Hall. As the students quieted down, Professor McGonagall read loudly from a list.

"Abercrombie, Euan." A terrified looking boy went up and put the Hat onto his head. It fell on top of his eyes. The Hat was silent for a moment, but then it shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" The people at the Gryffindor table clapped while the boy went to join the Gryffindor table, looking embarrassed.

I barely heard what Professor McGonagall said after that. Gradually, she got to the bottom of the list, "Zeller, Rose," who got sorted into Hufflepuff.

Everybody except me was sorted into the Houses. After Rose Zeller went to sit at the Hufflepuff table, Hogwart's headmaster, Dumbledore, stood up and addressed the students.

"To our newcomers, welcome! Speaking of which, Mr. Nico di Angelo (I cringed at that; somehow it made me sound old) is here as an exchange student from America, so please be kind to him. He will be joining the fifth years," Dumbledore announced.

There's a reason I never liked being at the center of attention; this is why. Now everybody was staring at me, making me want to just shadow travel away. Fortunately, Dumbledore placed the Hat on my head and it covered my eyes, which I didn't mind so much now.

'_Hmmm… Interesting. A demigod, and a powerful one at that. Oh! And on a quest to destroy You-Know-Who!'_

Added to the list of powers the Hat has: Mind reading (list so far: talking, singing, sorting, and mind reading).

'_It was only four years ago that I sorted another demigod.' _The Hat said conversationally (can magical hats do that?).

'Who was she?' I thought, eager to know. Another demigod came here? Why?

'_I'm surprised you didn't know,' the hat mused, 'her name was Luna Lovegood, a daughter of Athena!'_

Now I remembered her. She only stays at the Athena cabin during summer vacation, and had an owl for a pet (I didn't consider it strange, she is a daughter of Athena, after all).

'_Enough about Luna,' the Hat said, 'let's talk about you.'_

After getting around the mental barriers I hastily put up, the Hat said, _'The only mortal son of Hades. Must be difficult.'_

'Very,' I sighed, 'and made even harder by a talking Hat looking into my memories.'

'_You don't have to be rude,' _the Hat said, _'I won't tell anyone what I saw, but I need to see all of your memories.'_

So the Hat saw everything (maybe not everything, since my memories were wiped in the river Lethe, but you get what I mean).

_The moment Bianca joined the Hunters, leaving me alone at camp _(once was bad enough; I didn't need to relive it for a second time! The hat was silent during that. Then, saying nothing, it continued onto the next memory).

_I was making Percy promise to keep Bianca safe in this one _(I managed to not think about that; it brings sadness and, still, a bit of anger, all over again. '_You wanted to go on the quest yourself, very brave indeed' _the Hat commented, annoyingly, I might add).

_The day Percy and the group came back minus Bianca and Zoe _(at which point I mentally screamed at the hat to stop replaying the horrible scene all over again in my head. Of course, things didn't happen that way. The Hat went directly to the next memory, muttering, _'so much pain, anger, and suffering'_).

_Finding out that I'm a child of Hades, ever since I banished the skeletons chasing Percy on the quest, along with going to the Underworld, Elysium, Fields of Punishment, Asphodel, dad's palace, meeting Alecto and Minos, and learning how to control my power _(I had to admit, that was still really cool, even though I was angry at the time. Shadow traveling is always cool. _'Aha! So that's how you met your father!' _The Hat said triumphantly, _'In the Labyrinth!' _If hats had a soul, well, then it wouldn't be pleasant for this one. It was certainly going to the worst part of the Fields of Punishment).

_Taking Mino's advice, a soul for a soul in the Labyrinth. _I regret that very much. Stupid arrogant, manipulating, selfish, (insert swearword of choice here), ghost. _'You don't like him very much,' _the hat pointed out. Obviously. 'Please just finish this sorting already,' I thought over and over again. With that, the hat went on to the next memory.

_Me convincing Percy to take a dip in the Styx, taking him to my father, and then rescuing him. _I regretted that (the part about taking him to my father), and still do, very much, but it was the only way I could find out more about my mother! Besides, Hades promised not to hurt him. _'Brave, defying your father like that. Maybe you should be in Gryffindor,' the Hat said, 'although Slytherin would have suited you just fine. Maybe even better than fine, actually.' _

'Almost done with replaying all my memories,' I thought feebly.

_Convincing Hades to come to the Olympians' aid_. That was a happy memory; Hades finally got a cabin in camp after that. _'Like I said, you are brave. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to the Lord of the Dead and convince him of something he did wrong,_' the Hat said, although it shuddered when it saw the more unpleasant things in the Underworld (cough, Fields of Punishment and Tartarus, cough). Well, who said the Underworld was pleasant? (Maybe Elysium and the Isles of the Blest, but the Hat was already moving on to the next memory now).

_Me discovering Camp Jupiter. 'Adventurous,' _the Hat pointed out. It's not my fault a hydra attacked me while I was on a quest for Hades and accidentally stumbled across Camp Jupiter, but I guess I'm adventurous…If getting chased by monsters and almost becoming demigod food can be classified as adventurous, then yeah, I'm pretty adventurous.The latest memory was, of course, the most painful one:

_Me finding out about Bianca choosing to be reborn and finding Hazel. _Well, the second part wasn't exactly painful… It's the first part. When Bianca was dead, I could at least talk to her ghost. Now that she chose to be reborn without even talking to me about it…It was as though I lost Bianca all over again, but I know that if she'd told me before hand, I would've tried everything to stop her. I just wish I can see her, maybe somewhere, again, but I doubt it.

'_So much pain' _the Hat murmured; I had almost forgotten it was here at all. Almost.

'Umm…It's been several minutes now. Everybody would be curious,' I told the Hat, 'can't you just sort me into a House and be done with it?'

'_Sorry,' the Hat said, 'but this! One of the hardest Sorting ever! Hufflepuff is out of the question; Other Houses would fit you much better! Hmmm…I wonder, Ravenclaw? You're pretty smart.' _A pause, then, '_No, no. Gryffindor and Slytherin would be better suited for you. As for the question between these two Houses…That's hard. They both seem to fit you.'_

'Are you always like this?' I asked the Hat, annoyed. No ADHD kid likes to sit still for this long.

'_All right…' _the Hat said, _'then…you will be in…_**GRYFFINDOR!**' shouting the last part out loud.

Sighing with relief (because it's FINALLY over), I slipped the Hat off my head and went over to the table Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at.

**Harry's Point of View**

"Nico is going to be joining the fifth years!" I whispered to Ron and Hermione, "It'll be easier for us to find out for about him now!" My friends both nodded, clearly as curious as I am about the new exchange student. Then, when, he put the sorting Hat on, I waited for what was like eternity and wondered what the Hat was seeing in his head. I was even sure the Hat gave a slight shudder at some point, which just made me even more curious. Death Eater memories, maybe?

Then the Hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR", and I was caught off guard. I had thought for sure that he would get sorted into Slytherin, which made me even _more_curious, if possible. What exactly _did _the hat see? I have no idea, but I have a feeling that we're going to find out soon.

Nico came over and sat down at our table just as Dumbledore waved his hands and the dinner appeared. He didn't look comfortable at all in the center of attention, but I wouldn't be, either (and I know what that's like, thanks to the Daily Prophet, which keeps on spreading lies about Voldemort's return). I dug in to the food. Hogwarts feasts have so much wonderful food. Nico, I noticed, looked angry and didn't even touch the food as though it was poisonous.

**Nico's Point of View**

Great. The food appeared, but I can't see any fire in sight. I can't eat unless I sacrificed a part of my food to the gods (unless you want to be blasted into pieces). So I had to sit there and watch the trio dig in to their dinner. I'll have to talk to professor Dumbledore about that later. Now that I have time to look around, I realized the Great Hall was filled with ghosts floating around. This would cause even more paperwork for my father. I sighed and went up to Professor Dumbledore while the others were eating.

"Um, Professor?" I asked Dumbledore, who was talking with Professor McGonagall, "In my old school, we have this religious tradition that you can't eat if you don't sacrifice some of your food. Can I have a fire so I can eat the food?"

Unfortunately, before Dumbledore could reply, a fat woman wearing nothing but pink that reminded me of a toad who somehow overheard my conversation said coldly, "This is Hogwarts, not your old school. You will do well to respect our ways."

"So I have to drop all of my old traditions?" I asked, outraged. I was liking this woman less and less. She had an air of self-importance that made me like her even less than Dionysus (which is saying a lot, considering how much I hate Dionysus).

Before she can say anything, however, Professor Dumbledore cut in, "Even though this is Hogwarts, we still respect students' beliefs, Dolores." Then, to me, he said, "Of course, I'll set up a fire for you."

"Thank you," Professor. I wasn't usually this nice with teachers, but Dumbledore didn't look like a normal teacher, and by normal teachers, I meant monsters that are disguised as teachers just to kill me. It's sad, really, but that is considered normal now. (*cough*, Dr. Thorn,*cough*). I went back to my table to find a fire appear out of thin air right next to Harry and the others, surprising them. Then, shoving the best portion of the food on my plate into the fire, I murmured, "To Hades and Hecate." The smoke smelled like flowers, which I didn't understand at all. Oh well, at least now I get to eat. I started to eat my dinner just as I heard Ron say "-if it's a hat?" to a ghost.

"I have no idea," the ghost said. "Of course, it lives in Dumbledore's office, so I daresay it picks things up there." I frowned. What was that about? I took another bite of the roast potatoes, savoring it. The food was delicious!

"-ouses to be friends?" Harry was saying now, "Fat chance." He looked over at the Slytherin table, where lots of people were listening to a blond boy talking.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, interrupting the ghost and gesturing to the boy over at the Slytherin table. The ghost looked offended, but when he saw me, his eyes widened in shock. Uh-oh. He's about to blow my cover! "No!" I whispered to the ghost, stopping him from kneeling down in front of me, "You'll blow my cover!"

"Sorry, my Lord," he mumbled, then quickly flew away.

Although the trio looked suspiciously at me and then at the direction of the ghost, who was nowhere to be seen, Harry decided to answer me, looking at the boy at the Slytherin table with contempt, "For one thing, he is in Slytherin."

I frowned. "So?"

"There isn't a person in Slytherin who didn't turn to the Dark Lord's side," he answered.

Dark Lord… "You mean Vol-"

"Yeah," said Ron, "but call him You-Know-Who." Harry shot Ron an angry glance at that.

"Why do you hate _him _in particular?" I asked, pointing toward the boy whose name I later found out was Draco Malfoy.

"Because he's-"

Whatever Harry was about to say was interrupted when Dumbledore stood up and gave a speech. He talked about the forest being off limits to students and introduced two new teachers – Professor Grubbly-Plank, teaching Care of Magical Creatures (the trio seemed worried by this, but I couldn't see why), and Professor Umbridge, teaching Defense against the Dark Arts, (so that's who the pink woman was!).

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the House Quidditch teams will take place on the-"

I didn't know why he stopped, but then Professor Dumbledore looked at the Umbridge woman, and she gave a little cough, "hem, hem", which I found extremely annoying. Then she stood up and said, "Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome." I mentally made a list of all the things I don't like about her when she's speaking (because that's a MUCH better thing to do than listening to her talk).

**List of All Things I Do Not Like About Umbridge**

She's wearing all PINK! (That's just, _ugh_, the worst color ever! Aphrodite is going to kill me, I know).

She lies. (I just hate it when someone goes all fake-voiced and says things sweetly when they don't even mean it. She's worse than Alecto acting as a teacher, which was horrible).

Ridiculous cardigan (do I need to say more?).

Toad-like (Well, she is!).

Unfortunately, I ran out of things for right now, but I'm sure more will be added onto the list later. I only caught phrases of what she spoke because of my ADHD, but I still got the bigger picture.

"-of Hogwarts-"

"- progress for progress's sake-"

"-tried and tested traditions-"

"-outmoded and outworn-"

"-pruning-"

"-practices that ought to be prohibited-"

Then she sat down and Dumbledore continued his speech, which I paid zero attention to (how many speeches in a day can an ADHD kid take?). After Dumbledore finished with the speech, people got up and started to leave. Hermione suddenly jumped up and led the first years into the common room. I stayed in the Great Hall after everyone left and followed Dumbledore to his office.

"Lemon drops," he said to the gargoyle, and the door opened.

"What do you want to talk with me about?" I asked.

"I know your task is hard," Dumbledore said, "so I just wanted to help you with the locations of the Horcruxes."

"Does anybody else know who I am?" I asked.

"The teachers except for Professor Umbridge know," he replied.

"So where are the horcruxes most likely hidden?" I asked.

"That, you'll have to find out on your own, but beware, one is where you least expect it to be!" On that happy note, he dismissed me and I walked out of the office.

**A/N: Yay! I finished this long chapter!**

**I know, sorry, Nico in Gryffindor is common, but he has to be there for some things to come later in the story.**

**To Terrorized: Yeah, Nico and Luna are going to…like each other…maybe on a date or something :) **

**Again, please review and tell me what you think of the story!**


	6. Blair Dilholm

**Okay, so thanks for the reviews, and I have some really funny ideas planned, and I got tired of the boring disclaimer…so…here goes nothing…Oh and I also don't own Blair. Special thanks to TheGreekGoddessofMagic for the character Blair! Okay, disclaimer:**

**Me: I don't want to say it… **

**Nico: just say it already! Get on with the story!**

**Me: Why don't you say it?**

**Nico: I...uh…don't feel like it (shadow travels to Hogwarts, boys' dormitory) Harry can say the disclaimer.**

**Harry: oh…um…Let Voldy say it!**

**Me: (Summons Voldy's ghost, currently in the Fields of Punishment) Say the disclaimer!**

**Voldy: What? Oh, of course the author doesn't own PJO or me (a.k.a. Harry Potter series). (Looks at Nico), YOU! Ava-**

**Me: Let's just get on with the story! And how many times do I have to tell you; it doesn't work on a demigod! (rolls eyes)**

**Nico: (Takes Voldy back to the Fields of Punishment). That was fun!**

**Me: Enjoy!**

**Nico: Yeah, I enjoyed the leftover happy meal! Thanks!**

**Me: Not you! I'm talking to the viewers!**

**Nico: Oh, well…**

**Me: I should get on with the story…Enjoy! (glares at Nico)**

**[This is Author's note]**

**["This is Nico speaking"]**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Normal Point of View**

Nico walked down the hallway just as the prefects were about to lead the first years into the Gryffindor common room.

"Wait," he called, catching up to them, "can I just tag along with you? I don't know the password."

"Sure," Ron said, while Hermione frowned, wondering what exactly did they discuss in Dumbledore's office.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia!" Ron said to the Fat Lady, and the portrait swung aside.

They entered the dormitory after Ron and Hermione led the first years to their places.

"-mother out of this, Potter!" somebody shouted.

A boy was angrily shouting at Harry, his face turning redder by the second. "What happened?" He asked the question for himself and a startled Ron.

"He's having a go at my mother!" the boy, Seamus, yelled, his anger for Harry overriding the wariness he felt in the presence of the exchange student.

"What?" said Ron, incredulous, "Harry wouldn't do that-we met your mother, we liked her…"

"That was before she started believing every word the stinking Daily Prophet writes about me!" Harry was now shouting.

The Daily Prophet…Nico briefly remembered that Hecate told him it was the (not-so) official newspaper for the Ministry of Magic…

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"The Daily Prophet is the unofficial newsletter for the Ministry of Magic," Hecate lectured in a teacher-ish way. Nico, who had missed the other boring history lectures Hecate told him about the wizarding world, perked up curiously.

"Ministry of Magic?" He asked, "What is _that_? What do they do there? Are they politicians? There's a magical Minister?" The last question popped into his head, and for some reason he found that really funny.

"Well," Hecate said once Nico managed to stop laughing, "the Ministry is responsible for keeping people without any magic-in this case, they call them muggles-from knowing about the wizarding world for the good of every wizard and witch. Supposedly." At this, the goddess made a sour face.

Nico couldn't stop himself from asking, "Supposedly?"

"Well, lately all they've been doing is trying to spread word that Harry, that's the boy who survived the killing curse, and Dumbledore, an old friend of mine (don't ask), are lying about Voldemort coming back. Which I assure you, is absolutely true," she added the last part unhappily.

"And I'm not too pleased about that either," Hades, who had been quiet for the most part (emphasis on most), interrupted sourly. "It would have saved me all the paper with his soul partially wondering rather than trying to hide from me."

"So they're just like mortal politicians," Nico summed up, getting back to the topic of the Ministry of Magic."

"Yes," Hecate said, "and their minister, yes, they do have a minister, is similar to the minister of Britain. With magic, of course, which is where the Daily Prophet comes in. It's the tool the Ministry is using to make Harry and Dumbledore look crazy."

"People would actually believe that?" Nico asked, "I mean, don't they have facts or something to prove Voldymart (yes, it's misspelled) is back?"

Hecate shrugged, "you'll be surprised what lengths people will go to make the truth sound fake when they don't want to face it, which is why they're intent on making the truth teller look bad and crazy so nobody would believe them."

Just then, Persephone walked into the room. Her eyes widened at the odd trio in the room-Hades, Hecate, and Nico. Recovering from her shock, Persephone said, "Hecate! What are you doing here in Lord Hades's palace?"

Hecate, not wanting to admit that she needs help to everyone, merely said, "A little business to take care of" at the same time Nico muttered, "None f your business."

Persephone's eyes narrowed dangerously."I'm sorry; I don't think I heard you properly. What was that you said?" She asked in a dangerously sweet voice [_not _like Umbridge; Persephone's much better than our friend the toad. (Sorry, just had to say that. It sounds funny-our friend the toad, haha, ok, fine, I'll stop, so stop yelling at me, Nico!)].

"I said none of your business, _stepmother_," Nico replied, tired of hearing Persephone's dislike towards him and Bianca, well, mostly him. It wasn't his fault he was Hade's son! Apparently that was the wrong (dumb) thing to say, because the next thing he knew, he was shrinking as the 3 immortals seem to grow taller and taller. 'Oh no, not this again!' he groaned/thought (roses can't speak).

Persephone eyed him happily, studying her handiwork. "You make an interestingly unique rose," she mused. The two other immortals in the room were still trying to recover from their shock.

'A rose!' Nico thought angrily, 'Of all the flowers, a rose! And a pink one, ugh. You #%&*%#$^*&%#$^&...' He spat out every single word of insult he knows in English, Greek, _and _Italian that could have rivaled those of Sisyphus.

"Oh dear," Persephone said, "those were some very colorful language…for a flower." She smirked, obviously amused.

By now Hades had recovered from the shock that Persephone would still turn Nico into a flower even after the talk he had with her. And a pink rose! Aphrodite would be very amused, but the Lord of the Dead wasn't at all. Hecate, meanwhile, wisely chose to stay out of the "family spat".

"Turn his back right now, Persephone," Hades yelled.

"Pity," Persephone looked at rose Nico, who was resembling a sad and angry rose (can roses even do that?), "you would be perfect in my garden…" she sighed, waving her hand. Immediately Nico became himself again, glaring angrily at the Goddess of Springtime and Flowers. 'This was worse than being a dandelion!' Nico thought unhappily.

Before anyone can say something, the goddess disappeared in a shower of roses, which made Nico shudder involuntarily at the very recent memory.

Hecate sighed. Immortal families could be very messy. She had just seen that demonstrated again.

"So, as I was saying," she resumed her lecture, "the reason the Ministry is after Harry and Dumbledore began with a triwizard tournament last year…"

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Nico shivered now, remembering his unpleasant time as a flower. To distract his thoughts altogether, Nico listened to the heated argument that brought the temperature in the dormitory up several degrees.

"Out of order, am I?" Seamus was now shouting at Ron, his face red, "you believe all the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who, do you, recon he's telling the truth?"

Nico was tired of all the rubbish about "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". It's much easier calling him by his real name.

"Why don't you guys just call him Moldywart, wait that's not it, Voldymart, er, I mean, Voldemort?" The argument was stopped and everybody in the room except for Harry cringed t the mispronunciations of the Dark Lord's name and his real name.

'So he can say Voldemort's name without the usual flinching and gasping in shock involved' (which is what everybody in the room is doing right now), Harry thought, 'but that still doesn't mean he's not related to Voldemort in any way.'

Seamus, however, finally recovered enough to stutter, "Y-y-you s-shouldn't s-s-speak You-K-know-Who's n-name like that."

Nico, however, shrugged. "Does it really matter?" He asked, still upset by the fact that everybody is afraid of Voldemort. Is he really that scary?

"Of course it matters!" Seamus said for the rest of the people in the room, "There's a reason You-Know-Who is called the Dark Lord. He's the evilest wizard in history!"

"Well," Nico said, "it's possible for him to be defeated again."

Seamus's eyes widened, "So you believe all that rubbish talk about him coming back? You're crazy too!"

"Like it or not, it's true," Nico retorted. "He really is back." Then, before anyone else can say something, Nico lied back on his bunk and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillows. The shadow traveling helped. A lot.

Harry's eyes widened. Nico said it so matter-of-factly that even Seamus looked a little convinced. 'This is just getting more and more confusing,' he thought. 'Who is Nico, exactly?' He'll have to ask Hermione tomorrow and see if she found out anything about him in the library. With nothing else to do, Harry went to bed too.

Instantly Nico found himself in the deepest part of the Forbidden Forest, as the students call it, with a beautiful woman with long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was wearing a dress that changed colors and was sparkly. In other words…magical. **[That's what I imagine Hecate would look like].**

"Lady Hecate." Nico bowed.

"Have you sensed any Horcruxes yet?"

"That's the thing." Nico said, "I can sense souls, just not parts of souls. How am I supposed to sense Horcruxes? The pieces of souls in one Horcrux has to be small!"

"Relax," the Goddess of Magic said, "you must…Open up your sense even more."

'Can everybody stop being so mysterious?' Nico thought, 'I hate riddles.'

Reading his mind, Hecate said, "It's not a riddle," making Nico jump in surprise, "it's just a plain fact." She said it like it was obvious.

"First mind-reading hats, now mind-reading Goddesses," he grumbled. Then his eyes widened. "You mean all gods can read my mind? That's…disturbing, in the least."

"We're getting off topic," Hecate said impatiently, clearly changing the subject.

"Depends on what you would call off-topic," Nico said, then grinned sheepishly, "yeah, sorry, I guess I am off-topic, but I'm ADHD, oh, right, off topic again…"

Hecate was obviously trying (and failing) to be patient. Nico could be almost as bad as Percy. If he wanted to. "Let me help," she said, and before Nico could say something, began chanting magical incantations in Greek. **[yup. I finished the Kane Chronicles. Pretty cool] **A cloudy, golden mist gently swirled around him until Nico was fully engulfed. Then, just as quickly, the mist faded, leaving him feeling quite…different, as if his senses became more accurate and pinpointing souls came more easily.

Suddenly, without warning, Nico found himself back at the boy's dormitory just before Hecate said, "Try it," and woke up.

The first thought that popped into Nico's head when he woke up was that he could actually sense a horcrux (or piece of soul) RIGHT HERE IN THE BOYS' DORMITORY! The second thought was just as unnerving: all his soul-sensing radars are pointing towards Harry, of all people! The Boy-Who-Lived! 'Maybe that's why,' Nico thought, 'that, _ugh_, vile, cheating insulting (to my father and me), sorry excuse for immortality_…_…' he continued to spout choice words about Tom Riddle until he finally got to the point: '*censored*…Tom Riddle probably sent his soul on a one-way trip to destruction when he decided to make _seven _horcruxes and forever made it unstable. That little bit of his soul must have been displaced. After all, he dared to make hrocruxes at his own peril.' Right after Nico had that thought, his ADHD brain started to devise ways to destroy that little piece of soul and send it to the worst part of the Fields of Punishment, except for one obstacle. One big obstacle: the soul was somehow merged with Harry's, and he couldn't send it to hell (literally) without killing him as well, which, as annoying as he is, Nico still couldn't kill an innocent mortal. Or wizard, whatever. After coming up with seven failing plans (and already knowing the eighth one wouldn't work), he decided to take a walk. After all, Nico can't ask Hades for help, or else Hades will think that Bianca would've done much better, if not already. This quest was getting more complicated. But then, being a son of Hades wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. At least he could wear his normal clothes, instead of the robes, which, he was sure, would give everybody at camp a laughing fit they might never recover from.

Absent-mindedly, Nico walked through the common room, and the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open to let him through, but not before she said, annoyed, "What are you doing here in the middle of the night? I was sleeping, you know."

Nico knew it'd be much easier to shadow travel out of the dormitory, but for now, since he doesn't want to blow his cover, he decided to do it the (slightly) harder way.

"Nothing," he mumbled, which was the lamest (and most suspicious) thing to say. The Fat Lady, however, was too tired to argue **[How can a portrait get tired? I mean, she just sits in the painting all day…right? Did you ask her, Nico? "Shut up! I didn't ask her. And I won't!"]. **After climbing the flights of stairs to the tower room and looking out (which was really high up and gave him the feeling that Zeus was about to blast him to tiny bits), he wandered down the corridor, trying to see if there are any more horcruxes in the school.

"What are you doing here, in the middle of the night?" A voice asked behind him, and Nico cursed himself for being so wrapped up in his thoughts and not noticing the presence of another person sooner. He quickly whirled around and saw a dark brown wand pointed at him. The holder of the wand was a girl with orangey-hazel eyes, smooth caramel hair tied into a ponytail with only a bright blue streak left out, and surprisingly pale skin. Her expression was a mixture of alarm and curiosity.

"You're that new exchange student, right?" She asked, "Why are you here? This far from the Gryffindor common room."

"I was just wondering around," Nico told her, still mad at himself for not noticing her sooner. "What are you doing here, and who are you?"

"Reading," Blair said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, holding up a book titled "The Red Pyramid" that Nico failed to notice earlier **[Wow. Epic fail, Nico. "No. Comment." Okay, if you say so (while trying to hold back laugher)]. **"As for who I am," she continued, "Blair Dilholm. I'm in Ravenclaw."

**Blair's Point of View**

Blair didn't understand the new exchange student, Nico, at all. He appeared to be wearing black muggle clothing, unlike the usual school robes. The rumors were getting wilder and wilder by the minute, from Nico being an American wizard to him as a Death Eater or another relative of Volddemort's under cover (unlike most wizards/witches, Blair, being in Ravenclaw, knew that what Harry told the school was possible and that Voldemort really was back). She wanted to know if the rumors were true or not.

"So, are you really related to Voldemort?" She asked bluntly (yes, she's not afraid of saying his name either).

Nico couldn't stop himself this time; he laughed at the ridiculous name. "Moldy-wart?" He finally managed to say. 'This,' Nico thought, 'is for all the times that ridiculous name was mentioned where I couldn't laugh at it.'

Blair, however, frowned. 'So either he's telling the truth or he's a great actor (or liar).' It was still weird to see Nico laughing. Even though he just arrived at the school, everybody could tell from the first glance that Nico di Angel wasn't the type to laugh. At all.

**Normal point of view**

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard footsteps loudly approaching and the voice of Filch, the caretaker, saying, "Students past curfew, Mrs. Norris? What do you think? Snobby Potter again, maybe? Ha! I'll catch the troublemakers, don't you worry" followed by Mrs. Norris growling.

Nico bent the shadows around them even though he knew that the cat could sniff them out.

"Come on!" He hissed to Blair, "or do you want to stay and see what Filch and that cat has in store when they find you?"

"I'm not invalid," Blair huffed, offended, "this is not the first time; I can look after myself." With that, she turned the corner, found a square of ground in the corridor that looked nothing out of the ordinary, and tapped it with the tip of her wand. Immediately it opened to reveal a secret passageway. Looking at Nico's shocked expression, she hurriedly explained, grinning, "It leads straight into the Ravenclaw common room, but only I can open it. Pretty good, huh?" She gestured for Nico to follow.

"Yeah," Nico had to agree, "but I have no intension of going into the Ravenclaw common room," the footsteps sounded closer now, and Mrs. Norris gave meows of excitement, "so, see you later."

"Okay with me," Blair shrugged. Getting him out of the Ravenclaw room would've been hard, especially with Mrs. Norris sniffing their scents.

Just before she completely disappeared into the passageway, Nico added, with a smirk, "Nice meeting you." Then she was gone, and the entrance sealed up once more.

Nico knew shadow-traveling wasn't a good idea in Hogwarts: they just made him even more tired than usual with all the magical protections the castle has, though it's not impossible. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. 'Gryffindor common room, Hogwarts,' He thought, and was swallowed by the shadows just seconds before Filch and the cat rounded the corner. The last glimpse he had was of the two howling in rage that the naughty student, as Filch had put it, escaped.

Nico, unfortunately, did not specify the specific location in the Gryffindor common room, so he landed on the table and sprained his ankle in the process. Limping, slightly, he found the bed and collapsed onto it, but not before he saw Harry twitch and turn, as if having a bad dream, and saying, "…just a little further…" Then the shadow traveling took its toll and Nico fell onto the bed, sleeping.

**A/N: I was going to make Nico a yellow rose because yellow's a sunny color and rose is, well, yeah. Then Persephone probably knows about the language of flowers, so I made him a pink rose - stands for happiness;)**

**This chapter is mainly about Nico meeting Blair. Well, sort of.**

**So what do you think? Events moving too slow? Too much details? Please review!**

**And to answer RandomPerson's question, yeah, I totally forgot their ages. For now, Nico and Luna will be friends.**


	7. Revelation

**So sorry for the lack of update! I've been…lazy:(…and…so much homework!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HP**

**Special thanks to ****MacBud94 for his OC Felix!=)**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Page break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Harry's POV**

Seamus dressed and went down to breakfast long before Harry had time to do that himself, but both Ron and Dean tried to reassure him that it wasn't his fault. Harry dressed as quickly too and talked to Ron.

"I think Hermione got some facts," Harry told Ron, "either on what Voldemort (at this Ron flinched)- oh come on; get used to his name!"

"Just stop using it lightly like that!" Ron said.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You mean like Nico?" he asked.

"Well, yes," Ron said, "this is serious!"

"My point is," Harry said, pointedly trying to ignore Ron's comment, "that Hermione would already be searching the library and the newspaper for any news about either Vol-" Harry cringed at the glare Ron shot him and corrected himself, "er, I meant, You-Know-Who or Nico."

Ron didn't say anything, but he got dressed and hurried after Harry, joining Hermione at the Gryffindor common room.

"Have you found out anything about Nico yet?" Harry asked her urgently.

"No," Hermione said, "because now that I've returned to Hogwarts, I can use magic to knit more hats and scarves for the cause of S.P.E.W. Oh, come on," Hermione said, looking at the two exasperated faces that appeared whenever she talked about rights for house elves. "House elves are treated as slaves by most wizards and witches, but they have a mind of their own, which makes it morally wr-"

"Oh look," Ron said in an attempt to stop Hermione on her lecture of S.P.E.W., "breakfast looks good."

Hermione rolled her eyes as they entered the Great Hall. Halfway through breakfast marked the arrival of the usual mail delivery owls and a hastily dressed Nico, his hair looking like he just rolled out of bed, which he probably did.

**Nico's POV**

Nico picked the spot farthest away from people to sit. After all, the Ghost King is not known for his socializing skills. And just how early did these wizards get up? Nico was many things, but being a morning person just wasn't one of them. He barely managed to get ready for breakfast. At least the arrival of the owls made his entrance a little less obvious. Shortly after that, Professor McGonagall moved down the tables, handing out schedules.

"Mr. di Angelo," she paused beside Nico's seat, "you will be attending classes as normal, though every single book will be charmed to appear in Ancient Greek." With that, Professor McGonagall handed Nico his schedule and walked down the table again, handing schedules to other students.

Nico skimmed his schedule and groaned; one subject stood out from the others: double Defense Against the Dark Arts. Nico's powers were basically what this world considered the "Dark Arts," so he already knew that this wouldn't be a good class for him. Beside, didn't that toad, er, sorry, Umbridge woman say that she would be the new DADA teacher? Not many people in yesterday's speech caught his attention, but the toad did it. Pink! As if that made her look better. Nico looked at the other classes: Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, History of Magic, Divination…those are definitely not his areas of expertise, though History of Magic sounded especially boring. Any lesson with the word "history" in it sounds boring.

Care of Magical Creatures was taking place outside, though Nico wasn't surprised when all of the creatures ran away from him. He was fairly sure that if he spoke their language, he would be hearing something like, "Smell like dead people! Corpse! Creepy and weird! Get him away from me!" That pretty much ended Nico's "interaction" with the magical creatures in the first few minutes. The Professor had to recapture the creatures and Nico spent the rest of the class sitting on the side. She then told the entire class that the O.W.L.s are very important to their careers if they wanted to pursue a career in things to do with magical creatures.

The next class was potions. Nico thought that if he survived the first class, then he would pass through the second class with no problem. That was just the opposite of what happened.

The class became silent as soon as Snape came into the door. Amazing what a powerful aurora can do to people. He then proceeded to talk about how everybody in his class should scrape an "Acceptable" in their O.W.L.s or suffer Snape's displeasure, with his gaze lingering on Neville, who gulped.

"Even you, Mr. di Angelo," Snape said, his gaze swinging on the American exchange student. Nico, who had been drifting off and daydreaming as soon as he heard the word "O.W.L.s, suddenly jerked up. "In order to excel at potions you need to follow every instruction accurately, so I expect you to work twice as hard as other people to pass your O.W.L.s."

Apparently Snape wasn't told anything about where Nico came from, so he didn't know that Nico was dyslexic.

"Today we will be doing the Draught of Peace, a potion that, if not done correctly, can put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irresistible sleep, which is why you have to pay close attention to the instructions **[Skip ahead to end of speech]**. You have an hour and a half…Start."

Nico had a hard time following all the instructions, and this was the second time his cauldron contents had been erased. Snape erased the first one when he accidentally dropped all the ingredients into the cauldrons and caused neon green fire to rise from his cauldron, instantly melting the pot. Fortunately, nobody had been too close to the fire to get hurt, and Nico had leapt back just in time to avoid a flying spark emitted from the mysterious fire. This time, however, he had managed to mess up a little more dramatically, resulting in the damage of one fourth of the classroom. Again, nobody was hurt (they all scooted as far away from the exchange student after the first "accident". Wise choice, on their part), and again, Snape had to clean it up. For once, the potions teacher was distracted from his usual torture-Harry-Potter routine to make-Nico-stand-in-center-of-attention game.

"Thirty points from Gryffindor," Snape said coldly. Nico sighed. This was going to be a long rest-of-the-period.

One hour later, Nico managed to get through potions without any _major _explosions. There were still some minor, less dramatic ones, but it's still a breakthrough for the son of Hades. And a foot long essay! On moonstones? Briefly he wondered if this was what school was like every day. Hermione, however, didn't think the essay was hard at all but was very upset by the fact that Nico managed to lose 30 points for Gryffindor on the first day.

"Thirty points!" She had cried, "That's 5 points more than I've earned today! I can't believe it; he has to be better than that!"

"Maybe he's another one of those spoiled brats with powerful parents like Malfoy," Harry said savagely.

Unfortunately for the trio, Nico actually heard him and rounded on Harry in an instant.

"Just because my father is very powerful doesn't mean I'm a spoiled brat! And who's Malfoy, anyways?" He added the last part as an afterthought.

"You should know who Malfoy is!" Ron, stubborn as always, went on, "After all, aren't you guys Death Eater buddies?"

Nico burst out laughing. Again. Even after hearing it once, the term is still funny. Sure, he tried to cover it up, but it wasn't easy trying to keep a straight face when you're imagining…well, what the name said – Thanatos being…uh…_eaten_.

"Thanatos eater?" Nico asked after making sure that he wouldn't burst out laughing again. "What is that about?"

Hermione frowned. She alone, of course, knew who Thanatos was while Harry and Ron looked on in confusion.

"Well, Death Eaters are You-Know-Who's followers. They do all the dirty work for him." Hermione explained. "But why did you say Thanatos eater? This is not Greek Mythology, after all."

"Oh! Um…I used to be obsessed with it, so…I know a lot about it." Nico hastily made the suspicious up. 'Maybe I really do need lying lessons from the Stolls,' he thought.

The Golden trio looked at the Ghost King suspiciously, not buying it at all. Just then, the bell rang, saving Nico from almost getting his cover blown.

"I better get to divination," he muttered to the trio and quickly walked away. 'If only I could manipulate the Mist here,' he thought, 'but the wizards are blessed by Hecate, which means that they can see through the Mist to a certain degree.

Coincidentally, Nico had divination with the trio. Since he already knew that demigod dreams are a vision of the past, present, or future, Nico found out just how far off _The Dream Oracle _was to the truth. His latest dream had been about Hecate teaching him how to sense horcruxes, but the book interpreted that as Nico is going to die a gruesome death. As if fighting monsters can't already do that to you.

**Harry's POV**

Harry was amused. So he wasn't the only one whose dream was interpreted by the Professor as a gruesome death. On the bright side, this gave him and Ron more time to discuss a few things.

"You know," Ron muttered after interpreting his own dream as him losing the Quidditch game, "if you want to see if Nico is a Death Eater just check his arm. Every Death Eater has a Dark Mark."

"But he wouldn't do that if he really is one." Harry replied.

Ron shrugged. "If he doesn't want to show his arm, then that would mean he's a Death Eater."

"Of course," Harry mumbled, "stupid of me. Now, what's your dream again?..."

The next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and again the Golden Trio had it with Nico. Harry didn't look happy. After all, that Umbridge woman was very cruel to him in court.

The class sat down quietly, with Nico taking a seat in the corner.

"Well, good afternoon, class," She said finally in a sickly sweet voice.

A few people mumbled "good afternoon," but clearly she wasn't satisfied with that.

"Tut, tut, that wouldn't do, will it?" Umbridge said, "I want you to say 'good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' Now, let's try this again: "good afternoon, Professor Umbridge."

This time, everybody said it.

"That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, wands away and quills out please."

**Nico's POV**

What kind of Defense Against the Dark Arts didn't need to use magic? Shrugging, the necromancer put away his black wand and took out a quill from his bag. At the same time, the professor flicked her short wand and tapped it against the blackboard.

Defense Against the Dark arts

A return to Basic Principles

"Well, your teaching in this subject has been rather…" At that, Nico slowly fell asleep.

"Mr. di Angelo," He suddenly jerked awake and looked around the room, expecting monsters to attack at any minute (his dream was that a snake man sent two hydras on their way to Hogwarts right now).However, Nico looked embarrassed when he found everybody in the classroom staring at him. "Would you be so kind as to tell us what the assignment is?" Again, she said it in that sickly sweet voice.

"Oh…uh…um…Read chapter…one! Yeah, read chapter one." Nico hastily said.

"Chapter one of what?" the toad** [I'll just call her the toad from now on]** asked.

"Of the Defense Against the Dark Arts book." He said.

"Keep in mind that, next time I catch you, you wouldn't be so lucky." The toad said, her voice suddenly turning from sickly sweet to cold in an instant, which was, in his opinion, much better.

"Yes Professor Umbridge," Nico muttered, then added, "toad" under his breath. Thankfully no one heard him. She just smiled and continued with her lesson of copying notes and reading chapter one.

Minutes passed, and at first Hermione was the only one who dared to ask the new teacher about not using wands, but then Ron, Harry, Dean, and Parvati all followed.

Soon the toad's class was in chaos as people defended Moody and Lupin (without raising their hands, of course) about their methods of teaching the class.

"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?" The toad was now saying, in response to a question another student asked. Nothing she said applied to Nico. Technically, he was over seventy years old, and that could hardly be considered a "child". Besides, he knew lot of monsters who wanted to have him for dinner, until the son of Hades persuaded them otherwise by giving them a free trip to Tartarus.

"…maybe Lord Voldemort?" Harry said mockingly. Even though Nico didn't like Harry, he agreed with him. Why couldn't wizards and witches accept the fact that Tom really was back? Again, lots of people reacted with gasping, screaming, or almost fainting, in the case of Neville. Nico, on the other hand, perked up. This was going to get interesting.

"ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." Silence. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead-"

"Nobody is allowed to 'return from the dead' without my father's permission!" Nico suddenly said, "And certainly not that annoying Tom Riddle! But he wasn't technically dead in the first place…he was merely reduced to spirit form when that spell backfired. Of course, he should have died, but due to the number of horcruxes involved, it's like he's almost immortal. Almost." Oops. Being the son of the death god apparently made him have a really strong opinion in anything having to do with death (as was to be expected). Now everybody in the classroom was staring at Nico. For multiple reasons. Even the toad forgot to remind Nico that he did not raise his hand.

"Mr. di Angelo, you've earned yourself detention along with Mr. Potter." The professor said after a while. "Now, I don't know what kind of rubbish you were taught in those American schools, but they certainly weren't Ministry approved ones. Therefore you don't have any authority to contradict the conclusions made by wizards who certainly know much more of this stuff than you."

Nico snorted. "I doubt it." He said.

Silence. No one in the class dared to speak, not even Harry. Then, "Another we-" Whatever she was about to say was interrupted when two hydras chose that exact moment to burst through the wall. Nico sighed. He had hoped that what he saw _was_ actually a dream. No such luck for a demigod **[except for Felix, who will come in later in the story]**.

Screams erupted everywhere as both hydras turned toward Nico. There was no time to keep his cover. Twisting the skull ring, Nico ran past the toad, who was cowering and shouting, "You monster go away! You have no right to harm a high Ministry official!" His 3 foot long Stygian iron sword was intimidating to both sides. The students stayed as far as they can from the pitch black blade and the 2 hydras. The trio looked like they were trying to help, but didn't know which side to take. Finally deciding, they tried to shoot the hydras with spells, but it simply bounced off the monsters as if they have an invisible shield in front of them.

Nico took a deep breath before muttering, "serve me" and stuck his sword into the ground (he's on first floor). Immediately cracks appeared as skeletal hands clawed their way out of the ground. Everyone else's eyes widened. The toad, being stubborn, shouted, "Practicing of the Dark Arts is banned, di Angelo! You'll be sentenced forever to Azkaban forever for this crime!", but of course Nico ignored her and ordered the skeletons to attack the other hydra, taking care to not cut off any heads while he rounded on the monster closest to him. One of its heads lounged, and Nico rolled out of the way just as it smashed into Umbidge's desk. Right now, there's only two heads. Spitting acid and poison. He tried to jab the blade into its chest, but the two heads made it hard for him to battle one and ignore the other. Pretty soon, Nico was forced onto the defensive, dodging poison and acid attacks. His normally agile speed was slowed down due to exhaustion of summoning so many of the dead, and he had to use his blade to block the monster's heads while trying not to cut them off. 'Pretty soon I'm going to tire out; or the hydra might get a lucky shot,' Nico thought, so just as he was about to take a chance and plunge his sword into its neck, the door (or what was left of the door) flung open, revealing Luna Lovegood in full battle armor with her knife in hand.

Hermione gasped. Luna? The girl she had looked down upon? She was one of Nico's kind, whatever that is? Harry and Ron, currently trying to shoot more spells at the monster (which didn't work), also stopped and lowered their wands in surprise at the sight of Luna, the weird girl with the butterbeer cap necklaces, to the rescue (well technically she is…).

Nico, who had been surprised by her sudden appearance, stood in shock and just managed to dodge out of the way of a spitting poison without getting majorly hurt, but still it tore through his hand, and he dropped the sword, clutching his hand, which was turning purple as the hydra poison quickly spread up his right hand.

When she saw the hydra, Luna immediately yelled, "get out of the way, Nico!" before speaking a fire spell and making a jet of white hot flames shoot from the end of her wand and engulf the unfortunate hydra. Nico just managed to roll out of the way seconds before the fire hit the monster, leaving 2 piles of golden dust on the floor (the first one was taken care of by the skeletons).

Luna walked up to a sheepish Nico, who was grinning despite the pain, and said, "You have to kill hydras using fire. Didn't you ever learn that?"

"Sorry, I was a little too busy to take out my wand," Nico winced as he clutched his hand.

"Here," Luna gave him some ambrosia to eat and poured nectar onto the wound.

"That feels much better." He closed his eyes, feeling the poison get expelled from his bloodstream. "How did you know I needed help, anyways?" Nico asked curiously after a while.

Luna snorted. "You're kidding, right? Those two hydras were making a racket huge enough to wake Typhoon. Maybe not that big," she added as an afterthought, "but still big enough."

Nico sighed. "I feel so useless."

Luna's eyes softened. "Don't be," She said softly. "You're a pretty good swordsman, but in some cases wisdom rules over all."

"Spoken like a true child of Athena," Nico teased.

Luna huffed. "I _am _the daughter of Athena," she said with considerable dignity, crossing her arms.

"Like I would forget that anytime soon." Nico muttered.

"Come on," Luna said, purposefully ignoring his last comment, "let's get you to the hospital wing. That hand still looks pretty bad."

"I'm okay!" Nico protested, "Really, I feel much better now!" He tried to walk away, but collapsed after a particularly large cut on his started to bleed again.

"Don't fool yourself," Luna said, "this'll only make it worse. Just get to the hospital wing!"

"Fine," he stood up and stubbornly refused to take her hand.

Sighing, Luna followed Nico out the crashed door…at least until a certain trio blocked their paths.

**Golden Trio's POV**

All hell broke loose the moment the two headed monsters broke through the castle wall, which shouldn't have been possible, with all the ancient magical enchantments protecting the school. The other students had managed to escape, but the trio had decided to stay behind, wanting to see what will happen next. Umbridge, however, had cowered behind her smashed desk and sat there whimpering, too paralyzed to move. Harry personally did not know what surprised him more: the two monsters, the skeletons the exchange student summoned, the way the shadow kept warping around Nico's sword, or the fact that he _actually summoned _skeletons, no doubt a very deep form of the Dark Arts.

"Hermione, what are those…_Things?_" Harry asked Hermione, the smartest student in their year.

"No…That can't be…And yet they fit the picture and the description perfectly…" Hermione was apparently lost in thought, mumbling things that didn't make sense at all to Harry and Ron.

"Uh, Hermione, are you okay?" Ron asked, worried.

"What?" Hermione snapped back into reality. One of the monsters was locked in fierce combat with Nico by now, while the other one was already crumpling into a pile of dust as the skeletons hacked at the two heads with their swords and muggle weapons. "Yeah, I'm okay," Hermione said. "It's just that…Those monsters…they're hydras. From Greek Mythology."

"From what?" Ron have never heard of Greek Mythology.

"It's a kind of ancient muggle civilization," Hermione explained, "the hydras are monsters with two heads that multip-"

"Um, that's all very interesting," Harry cut in, glancing nervously at the fight, "but why are they here? And why did our spells bounce off the thing?"

"They are obviously trying to kill Nico." Ron said. "Even I can see that. As for spells bouncing off…Is it possible they have some sort of a shield charm?"

"I guess…" Hermione didn't sound convinced.

Just then, the already damaged doors crumpled completely as someone kicked it aside. Standing there, in some kind of weird armor, was the person the trio had least expected to see: Luna Lovegood.

Harry gasped. "Loony…?"

She paid no attention to the trio. Instead, Luna shot fire from her wand and instantly disintegrated the monster. 'How come her spell worked?' Harry wondered.

"Fire…Nice." Hermione muttered, "That's how the first hydra was killed."

After the second one turned to dust, Luna turned on Nico, who apparently had been injured, and spoke to him in the most…un-Luna like way possible. The dreaminess was gone from her voice, and she spoke with an air of dignity and fierceness. Nico said something, then collapsed and tried to rise again. Angrily, he tried to limp away from Luna, but Harry strode up to him and blocked the two demigods' way.

"You need to explain what this," Harry gestured to the wreck and the remains of the monsters, "is about. And who are you?" He added, glaring at Luna, who refused to flinch but held his gaze steadily. "Did you guys know each other or something?"

"Yes, we did." Nico muttered. "Now, if you'll just excuse me so I can get to the hospital wing, then we can explain all of it."

"Deal." Harry stepped aside to let the two pass, but Nico turned one last time and sought out Umbridge, currently dusting her not-so-pink cardigan.

"This is what will want to harm children, Professor." He said in a mockingly polite voice, then grabbed Luna's hand and together they disappeared into the shadows.

"Why! A hundred points from Gryffindor and a year's detention for you, Mr. di Angelo!" She shouted after them, but Harry got the feeling that Nico wasn't listening even though they cannot apparate inside school grounds.

**Nico's POV**

He managed to get both of them to the hospital wing, scaring the nurse. Then, tired from the battle and taking a passenger inside Hogwarts, Nico blacked out.

The snake man appeared again in his dreams. He was talking to…Kampe. She's supposed to be in Tartarus!

"…seems I have underestimated that pathetic son of Hades." Voldemort was muttering.

"Of course, you wizards are so weak," Kampe said, and Nico saw anger flash through Voldemort's red eyes before they were replaced by wariness. 'He's scared of her!' Nico realized.

"We'll need to dispatch more monsters to get rid of the entire school. Get your Death Eaters ready for battle. And help get the army through the magical protection. Insufferable blessing of Hecate." Kampe growled.

"Of course," Voldemort said, and Nico's dream disappeared.

When he woke up, Nico was lying in a bed in the hospital wing. Moments later, Dumbledore himself came in.

"How are you feeling?" He asked kindly.

"I'm fine, but Riddle has now teamed up with Kampe." Nico told him about the dream.

Dumbledore's eyes clouded. "Unfortunate…but he will do anything for power. Right now, you need to rest."

"I'm fine." Nico insisted stubbornly and hopped off the bed. It was true, his hand was feeling so much better already. "I need to find Luna and contact camp."

"Very well, but you still need to rest." Dumbledore said.

"I'll do that when I'm done with contacting camp." Nico promised.

He summoned a rainbow with his wand and tossed a golden drachma into the mist. "O goddess Iris, please accept my offering. Percy Jackson and Chiron, Camp Half-Blood, Long Island, New York." The drachma sank in, and pretty soon, an image of Percy and Chiron talking appeared. Their eyes widened at the sight of Nico.

"Nico!" Percy said, "Where are you? What's wrong?"

"I'm on a quest right now," he told Percy and Chiron, "but things have gotten…slightly complicated." Quickly he explained what was happening. When he finished, both Percy and Chiron looked troubled.

"Teamed up with Kampe? That is bad. We'll send reinforcements over now." Chiron promised.

"Thanks."Nico said, and he disconnected the Iris-message.

Moments later, the trio turned up in the hospital wing.

"Now are you going to tell us what is going on?" Harry asked.

"You wouldn't believe it."

"Try me." Harry said.

Nico gave in. "Do you know of Greek Mythology?" He asked.

Hermione gasped. "That's it, isn't it? The hydra, the skeletons, the shadows. You're a son of Hades, aren't you?"

Nico was impressed. "You could be a child of Athena."

"Wait," Ron said, "a son of hey-des?"

"H-a-d-e-s," Hermione spelled, "the Greek god of the Underworld."

"You're not related to Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"No," Nico laughed. "Did I look like I was related to him?"

"Well…yeah."

"Never mind," he muttered, "I'm still not like Snake-Face."

"If you're a demigod, then why are you here?" Hermione demanded.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nico rolled his eyes. "I'm here to help you kill the Riddle dude, of course."

Professor McGonagall walked in as they talked and now said, "There's a person waiting outside Hogwarts that says he wants to see you."

Nico frowned. Who could that be? He shadow traveled outside to find none other than Felix S. Ventura leaning against a tree, dressed in his usual purple Camp Jupiter T-shirt. His hair was blond and messy, and he had violet colored eyes.

"Hello," Felix said cheerfully, "pleased to see me?"

"Yes," Nico said, "as long as there isn't a game of chance involved."

"Oh, I think those are quite fun." Felix grinned. "You wanna bet 10 drachmas that those games are actually quite fun?"

"No, it's okay," Nico quickly declined. The memories of their last meeting was still clear in his head. "I prefer to keep my drachmas. They could be useful when I want to Iris message…people."

"Okay." He was suddenly serious. "I was sent here to wish you luck."

"By Fortuna?" Nico asked. Felix, being the son of Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck, never had bad luck. Ever.

"Of course, since mom is too busy to do it herself." Felix said. "You might not need it; you're just as hard to kill as Percy."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Nico muttered. "So who would need it?"

"The Golden trio, of course. Those Death eaters can shoot spells. It'll be just like that lucky potion," his expression turned into distaste, "but 100 times better. They can't be hit unless they want to, though why they would want to, I don't know."

"How do you wish people luck?" Nico was curious.

"I just say, 'I wish you luck'." Felix rolled his eyes. "Why does everyone think it's more complicated than that?"

"I don't know." Now that Nico really thought about it, he didn't actually know the answer to that question. "Never mind, I'll go get the trio." Shadows wrapped around him, and pretty soon Nico was gone.

Nico appeared moments later with three other people, looking tired.

"Why did-" Harry caught sight of Felix. "Who are you?"

"Felix."

"Okayyyy…so why are we here-" This time, Hermione cut him off.

"We need…lucky potions or something?" She said uncertainly.

"Lucky potions! So artificial," Felix sneered. "I can do much better!"

"How?" Ron demanded.

"Considering I'm the son of Fortuna, it should be pretty easy." Felix snorted.

"Fortuna? The Roman goddess of luck?" Hermione asked.

"Well of course. Just because Greek gods are real doesn't mean Roman gods aren't real." Clearly Felix didn't like Hermione.

Harry and Ron, who got lost somewhere on the way trying to understand the conversation, decided to cut in. "So…we are lucky now?"

Nico laughed. That was funny, the way Harry phrased it.

"No, but I wish you luck." Felix said, then added, "now you guys will be lucky."

"I don't believe this. It's not technically possible to-"

"Just try it," Nico said, tired of listening to them bicker.

Harry frowned. "How?"

"Shoot Hermione with one of your spells!" Felix retorted.

Hesitantly, Harry raised his wand. _"Expelliarmus!"_

Nothing happened. The spell missed Hermione completely.

"Just don't try your luck," Felix said, then turned to Nico. A grin was starting to spread across his face. Nico didn't like what that meant. Sure enough, his prediction came true when Felix said, "Oh come on! Just a little game? Just one!"

"All right, but this time I get to choose the game." Nico said, suddenly smirking.

Felix grinned. "Of course. What would be the fun in my choosing a game? Name it."

"Mythomagic." Nico said.

Felix gasped in mock surprise. "Emo Nico? Still playing Mythomagic? But you'll owe me 10 drachmas when you lose!"

"Then maybe I won't," Nico said, and both of them walked into the castle to play.

Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. "That was weird." Understatement of the day, because just then, a massive black hound with sharp fangs and glowing red eyes appeared. Harry immediately raised his wand.

"_Stupidify!" _Just like with the two hydras, nothing happened. Then Hermione said, "Harry, wait!" A girl with red hair slid off the massive beast, and she saw them at once.

"Hi, I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and I need to see Nico! Do you know where he is?"

"S-Somewhere," Harry stammered, caught by surprise.

"He's in the castle," Ron said helpfully. "Come on, I'll show you the way."

"Wait!" Hermione shouted, "That's a hellhound! They're evil, in Greek Mythology!"

Rachel laughed. "This is the only friendly hellhound in the world. Her name's Mrs. O' Leary."

"Oh…ok…I'll take you to Nico." Harry's day was just getting weirder and weirder.

**PLEASE tell me anything that needs fixing. Next chapter is going to contain a prophecy!**

**To MacBud94: I hope I did justice for Felix. Please tell me if you liked it or not!**

**And last of all, PLEASE REVIEW!**


	8. Preparations

**Yay! I finally updated! Umbridge in this one is a little OOC. Enjoy the next chapter!**

**This one is for Hugs6 (for always supporting me) and TheGreekGoddessofBooks (for the awesome OC, Blair!)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HP**

**Nico's POV**

It was no surprise that he lost. Nico decided to not think about it. After Felix returned to Camp Half Blood (nobody knows quite how he travels), Nico went to the dorm to pack his stuff. He didn't think he would be coming back to the castle anytime soon.

He was right. Harry burst into the common room just as Nico packed all his stuff into a black bag, followed by Ron, Hermione, and Rachel.

"Rachel!" Nico was shocked, "What are you doing here?"

"It's really important!" She said urgently, then suddenly doubled over. Her eyes glowed green as a light green-colored mist began to seep out of her mouth.

_Four Half Bloods must banish the cheater of Death_

_When one draws a last breath_

_To seek for the five to destroy_

_The final done by the boy_

_Half blood and wizard_

_Must unite for the blizzard_

The mist cleared slowly Rachel's eyes returned to their normal color. Exhausted, she collapsed, and Nico caught her just before she can hit the ground.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were shocked, not for the first time that day. What was that about?

"That…didn't sound too good," Harry said at last.

"Prophecies usually have double meanings," Nico explained, "Rachel is the Oracle of Delphi. The spirit of the Oracle possesses her from time to time to speak a prophecy."

"What double meaning could be in '_when one draws a last breath_'?" Hermione demanded.

"They _usually_ have double meanings," he avoided answering the question.

"Did the…Oracle say half bloods and wizards must unite?" Harry asked, "So we should go to look for horcruxes together?"

Rachel groaned and opened her eyes. She stood up and looked at the occupants of the room. "What did I say?" She asked curiously.

"This is still much better than Trelawney. I don't think our Professor is an actual seer at all." Ron muttered.

"I should analyze the prophecy," Nico said as he pulled out a quill and a piece of paper.

"I'll help. I think I remembered all of it." Hermione offered.

"This is…weird. Greek gods? Son of Hades? Underworld?" Even after all the things that happened, Harry still found it hard to believe everything from Greek Mythology was real. Thunder rumbled outside.

"Careful," Nico looked up, "names have power, so it's best not to speak them."

"I need to see Professor Dumbledore," Harry was getting a headache. He walked out the Gryffindor common room, followed by Ron.

"I remember the first line of the prophecy was, _'Four Half Bloods must banish the cheater of Death, when one draws a last breath'_," Hermione thought hard.

"Did I really look that creepy?" Rachel wanted to know.

"A bit. If the green mist and glowing eyes counted." Nico cut in helpfully.

Rachel shook her head. "Thanks a lot. Now, if you don't mind, I better get back to camp."

"Of course we mind! The world of wizards is about to end if we don't stop a snake dude from siding with Kampe and taking it over with pathetic followers called 'Death' Eaters!" At that, Nico made air quotes with his fingers. Then he rolled his eyes. "Just kidding. Typical day for me."

"I didn't know you can be so sarcastic, Mr. Pessimism." Rachel said mockingly as she went to look for Mrs. O' Leary.

Nico guessed what she was doing. "Did you take Percy's pet hellhound here?" He demanded.

"Well, yeah. It's not like I can take Blackjack all the way here." Rachel replied as though the answer was obvious.

"She won't be going anywhere for a while," he said firmly. "Shadow traveling drains her energy too much."

"Fine." Rachel relented. "I'll take her after a couple hours. In the meantime, I'll go explore the school. Oh, I'll be fine," she added at the look he gave her, "it's not like I'm helpless."

Turning back to his piece of paper, Nico wrote the first line down. "I think it meant four demigods, not four people in total. As for the cheater of Death, that's easy. The cheater of Thanatos is Tom Riddle, and I don't need to explain the last part."

"That's what you meant by Thanatos Eater!" Hermione laughed, "It's quite funny if you think about it that way! Oh, all right," she said at the look Nico was giving her. "The third line is, _'To seek for the five to destroy, the final done by the boy._"

"The 'last one' is probably his horcrux. I'm told Voldemort has so many of those," Hermione flinched. "Seriously," Nico sighed, "if you flinch every time you hear his name, then what are you going to when you meet him in battle? Get used to it now."

"I'm trying; it's not that easy," she said crossly. "As for the second part, who would the boy be?"

"We'll figure it out…eventually."

"And the last line: _Half-Blood and Wizard, must unite for the blizzard._"

"That one's simple. Half bloods and wizard work together to defeat the Riddle guy. I've already asked Percy for reinforcements." Nico stated.

Hermione nodded absently. "I'll go get Harry and Ron." She stood up and walked away.

"Hey, I found Luna!" Rachel was excited when she returned with, much to the Gryffindors' horror, Luna Lovegood. "I didn't know you went here before!" She added.

"Yeah, well, my dad was a wizard." Luna was all serious now. There was no trace of her usual daydreaming self. Then, addressing Nico, she asked, "Can I come with you on the quest?"

"Sure," he was turned away from Rachel and Luna, which was probably why they didn't see Nico blushing.

"Great!" Luna said happily, "I'll get ready. Meet you at lunch." She skip-walked toward the Ravenclaw common room.

Rachel raised an eyebrow at him. "I'll just go back to Camp now and see what Percy's doing." She ran out, calling to Mrs. O' Leary.

Nico took his bag and went down the flight of stairs, past the portrait of the Fat Lady, and entered the Great Hall. All whispers immediately hushed as he entered. Word of the hydra incident had spread like wildfire. He found Hermione, Ron, and Harry already waiting for him at the Gryffindor table. Ignoring all the stares, something the Ghost King was used to at Camp. Even after the Titan War, still not everybody accepted him.

"Hi," Harry greeted Nico, and he replied a "hi" back before burning a _large _portion of his food to Hades and Hecate. And a little to Hestia, for reasons he couldn't understand.

Just then, the students at Hogwarts witnessed a moment as bizarre as the hydra attack: a glowing symbol of a crossroad with the word "μαγεία" **[magic] **over it, surrounded by a glowing light green circle over the head of none other than Blair Dilholm, who was looking at the sign in awe and fear. Then a woman with shimmery blue robes and wavy black hair walked into the room and snapped her fingers. The occupants of the Great Hall all froze except for Blair, Luna, Nico, and the trio.

"Hello, demigods, wizards, ad witches," she announced. Then, turning to Blair, she said, "I am Hecate, Greek goddess of crossroads, magic, necromancy, and witchcraft."

"You…the symbol…my…_mother?_" Blair was incredulous. Her mother had been gone for 13 years. Why should she believe it that this woman…is her _mother_? Blair's father had always told her that her mother, well, was dead. Why stop believing it now?

Hecate sighed. "You were always bright. Yes, I am your real mother. You were perfectly safe from monsters when you didn't know your identity. I'm sorry, but…Blair…I really do love you…All those years…you're going to be a very powerful witch."

"I…" tears began to trace its way down Blair's cheeks. The others wisely chose to remain silent. "Why didn't you see me all those years? You have no idea how many times I wished you were actually here! How many times I wished I could see you! Why tell me now?"

"It's always like this," Hecate's eyes were full of sadness and regret. "Zeus has deemed the ancient law that Olympians cannot directly help their children. We minor gods/goddesses can, but they are frowned upon by the Olympians. Besides, if you didn't know who you are, then monsters wouldn't attack."

"Monsters? Like the ones that attacked Nico?" Blair asked, wiping away the tears. "I'll kill them!"

Nico wanted to say that their essence returns to Tartarus, but it didn't seem like a good time to say that.

Hecate smiled. "You'll need training to do that. In the meantime, you are a more than capable witch, and very good at using magic. For now, you can maybe try to channel your magic without a wand. See if it works."

Blair shook her head. "This…it's all too much to take in."

"I know, dear, which is why we're doing it now. You have to be ready for the war ahead."

"Of course," she said, and closed her eyes. Without bothering to take out her wand at all, she concentrated on shooting a simple spell, channeling her magic into her fingertips.

"_Stupedfy!"_ A bolt of red light shot from Blair's fingertips and hit a fountain. The unfortunate thing exploded into pieces. She looked at her hands in wonder. "I don't have to use a wand anymore!"

"And it's much more powerful," Hecate told her, "but be careful with it. Don't drain your magical reserves too much, or else you could pass out."

She nodded. "I won't." then, turning to Nico, "Can I go help you guys end the war?"

"You must be the third half blood!" Nico muttered to himself. In the silent Great Hall, everybody that wasn't frozen heard.

"She is," Hecate agreed.

"Wait, third _what?_"

"Third half blood, half mortal and half god." Hecate explained. "There was a prophecy that said four half bloods shall banish the cheater of Death. You are the third."

"Wow, I am? Of course I'll go. I just need to get ready." With that, she dashed off to the Ravenclaw common room.

Dumbledore walked in. "What?..." he glanced at all the frozen and unfrozen students. Lady Hecate," he bowed respectively.

"You of all people don't have to bow to me," Hecate was amused.

"Right. Are those the half bloods to go on the quest?" he studied each of them.

"We're still missing one," Nico said, "but we don't know who the last one is."

"_Arooof!_" A giant black hellhound bounded out of the shadows. Then she staggered, exhausted, and collapsed instantly.

Percy stumbled off.

"Why did you do this to Mrs. O' Leary?" Nico demanded. "She already shadow traveled Rachel, twice. She needs to rest for at least a day!"

Percy looked guilty. "I know, but I thought you needed help," he said, "so I came here as fast as possible."

Nico wanted to be angry with him, but he couldn't. Not after realizing that Percy only cared about his younger cousin. "I guess you're the fourth half blood, then."

Percy frowned. "There was a prophecy? Right, of course there was. That's why Rachel went here." He hastily added at the eye roll from Nico.

"Four is not…a good number in Greek mythology," Luna, who'd been quiet for a long time, finally spoke.

"I went with four people. Came out…okay."

"The prophecy said there has to be four. I don't think we can change that." Nico thought aloud.

"He's right," Hecate said. Turning to the trio, who'd been even quieter than Luna, she said, "Dumbledore, tell them."

"So soon?" he sounded dubious.

"Things are moving ahead…a little faster than normal." Hecate said. "Now, good luck, and close your eyes." She added the last part just before the Goddess of Magic reverted to her true form and flashed out.

"Very well," he turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who couldn't contain their curiosity.

"What is it, Professor Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"You all heard of the horcruxes, I assume?"

They nodded. "It's pieces of souls locked into objects so the person cannot die. If the person makes too many, then his/her soul would become unstable." Hermione said.

"Correct. You seem to know a lot about this, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore's eyes sparkled.

Hermione blushed, "Well, I did some research on it for the, you know, upcoming war."

"So, horcruxes, and You-Know-Who has them. What does that have to do with anything?" Ron cut in.

"Ah, but that is the point, is it not?" Dumbledore beamed at them like they won the tri-wizard tournament (which Harry did).

"We don't know the locations of any of them; how would knowing what horcruxes are help us?"

"You do know where the locations are. He hid it in the three symbols of the other three founders besides Gryffindor. The fourth one…" Dumbledore turned to Nico. "You will sense it when you meet him. And the fifth one…well, _you _alone know where it is…As for how to destroy it…What fun would it be if you guys have all the answers?" With that, he was gone.

Hermione's eyes widened. "No appariating inside Hogwarts! How did he do that?"

"He'll always be mysterious." Luna said. "Now, when he let, I think the rest of the students…unfroze."

"I'm all ready!" Blair came into the Great Hall, only to find people still staring at the space over her head, waiting for the sign to appear again. It didn't.

"We better go," Nico told them, and they all nodded in agreement.

"You can't just leave Hogwarts!" Malfoy shouted, "Professor Umbridge!"

"Of course not!" she said sweetly. "Now, all of you should come with me for a trip to the Ministry."

"I don't think so; we have a person to get rid of for the better." Nico faced Umbridge calmly. The students had quieted down by now and are staring at the argument between Nico and Umbridge.

"No?" She took out her wand, "Then…yes…They were disrespectful to me…has to be this way…none other…sure the Ministry will understand…_Cruciatus!_"

The bolt hit nothing, for Nico's ADHD reflexes were already making him dodge to one side.

Before he could say something, a bolt of green light shot out from Blair's fingertips and hit Umbridge. The pink toad crumpled.

"I've always wanted to do that!" She said excitedly. Then, "Lady Hecate's right. This is tiring." Blair staggered.

Malfoy, who recovered the first, yelled, "What did you do to her, you filthy mudblood?"

"First of all, I'm a half blood, in a different kind of way, and second of all, she really did deserve it."

Professor McGonagall stood up. "Blair is right. Dumbledore would never allow this." Umbridge groaned, not sweetly, for the first time ever, and slowly got up.

"You little..little…filthy half breed!" She shrieked. "Dumbledore is not here now! As a high up Ministry official, I have the right to punish inferior halfbloods who are insulting to any pureblood! You three," she pointed at Nico, Luna, and Blair, "come with me. And you too," she pointed at Percy. "I think we'll all have a nice talk when you all get to Azkaban."

"_Aroof!_" Mrs. O'Leary bounded up, probably looking for Percy. She found him and happily licked his face, avoiding the laughing students.

"A poodle?"

"What's a poodle?"

"It's a kind of muggle dog."

"Why would he keep that?"

The loudest of all, undoubtedly, was Umbridge. "GET THAT MUGGLE ANIMAL AWAY FROM ME! I SHALL EXECUTE YOU ALL FOR VIOLATION OF MINISTRY LAW #14898 ON FILTHY MUGGLE PETS!"

At the teacher's table, McGonagall was talking to all the teachers. Then she stood up. "You three will be allowed to leave school for the mission. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, you three go with them. You too," she said to Percy, "Dumbledore's orders."

"REBELLION! TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE GOING NOW!" Umbridge was going crazy now, trying to shoot spells at the Professor.

"It's not a rebellion. In fact, it's even for the better." McGonagall said, calmly making a shield wall with her wand. "Now, I'm afraid I cannot have you hurt any Hogwarts student, so…_Petrificus Totalus _and _Muffliato!_ Ah, that is better. Now, once again, as much as I'd like to choose a different leader for the Ministry, I cannot. This is not an act of war against the Ministry or any other way you might put it; we simply cannot afford a war between wizards right now. You'll just be kept guarded until, well, until the problem is solved." Raising her voice, she called, "Students! Lunch is over! Proceed to classes as normal. The classroom damaged by the, er, trolls will be canceled for now, and all students taking DADA will have an extra period of study hall. You may now leave." Not even Draco wanted to oppose the Professor, so everybody left. With some grumbling, fainting, whispering, and, of course, gossiping.

"We should _really _go now." Nico said.

Harry frowned. "You do know we cannot appariate inside Hogwarts, right?"

"Who said we were going to appariate?" Luna smiled. She whistled, and a silvery owl arrived.

"I thought you didn't have an owl!" Hermione gasped.

"My mother's gift." Luna said after she finished whispering something into the owl's ear.

The owl nodded and disappeared, moments later appearing with chariots drawn by threstrals.

"How can you summon threstrals? They're technically creatures of the Underworld." Nico, of course, stated the obvious.

"It's my mom's birthday gift to me. A mean of transportation." Luna said, her tone of voice indicating a topic she didn't want to talk about.

"Well, that's really useful," Percy said. "So can we go on the quest now?"

"Yes, everybody get in," Luna said, ushering Blair, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Percy, and Nico into the 3 chariots.

"Where do we go?" Harry asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "The Malfoy Manor, of course. It would give us a clue."

"The Malfoy Manor?" Ron squeaked, "Are we committing suicide?"

"Of course not!" Luna said hotly. "We'll eavesdrop on Voldemort!"

Hermione nodded. "This will be dangerous."

"And welcome to the life of a Half Blood." Luna smiled. Dangerously.

"You know, I liked you better as the dreamy Loony," Harry said after a while.

Luna laughed, "She's not that dreamy, and it was only to keep you guys from suspecting anything wrong."

Harry shook his head. "Never suspected anything wrong."

"So much sarcasm." With that, the seven people flew off to Malfoy Manor, shrouded by the Mist.

**Voldemort's POV**

The allegiance with Kampe wasn't going great, but what nobody knew, not even his most loyal Death Eaters, was that the Dark Lord had a plan. He always did. That son of Hades wouldn't even stand a chance. For Tom Marvolo Riddle was a legacy of Hades. Of course, he found out the hard way, through the ghost of Salazar Slytherin, but it had been worth it. Unlike what Kampe and her monster friends think, he _can _hurt them using a wand, and he would not give them any mercy. He is the powerful Dark Lord, after all, and Harry Potter will not defeat him this time.

Now time for the diary…He kept one when he was young. Why not now? Of course, if anyone read it, then the unfortunate person would be condemned to the cruciatus curse. Fingering the pitch black wand with his fingers, he slowly drew out a silver memory and waved his wand. Immediately, the silver mist formed itself into silver letters, which then turned black and embedded themselves onto the 67th page of the book that magically appeared in the center of the coiling snake, Nagini, who wasn't surprised at all. Bounding the diary to the horcrux inside the snake, it would be well protected, and nobody besides himself can reach it. Then the book disappeared, and everything, once again, was silent. Just as it should be. He laughed. A soft, evil, and frightening one. The time for his complete domination would come, though not today…

_Voldemort's diary_

_XXXX, XXXX, XXXXX (date)_

_Those fools, as usual, bought it that I was just a simple mortal blessed by that insufferable goddess Hecate. They will pay for their mistakes, I'll make sure. Master Slytherin taught me well…and I will honor him by making his House the one and only in Hogwarts. Once the mudbloods have been wiped out and the son of Hades have been sent back to his father. Serverus reports he has now been joined by 3 others, as well as the oh-so-famous Potter and his two friends, but he couldn't get the information on where they are headed. No matter. I will be ready for them, wherever they choose to go. A failed quest…_

**Well, like I said, Umbridge is very OOC, though I really do suspect that's what she would do…After all, she's crazy…**

**And I'm sorry Voldemort sounded out of character too; I really don't know how to do that part. Personally, I think Harry's a great wizard, but of course he cannot say that…And once again, thanks to Hugs6 for this idea, though I **_**think **_**this is the only diary entry of him I will do…**

**So please review.**

**And to TheSexyBitchesFromFiore: Well, I don't know…I prefer to not think about that…**


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